Step-by-step method

At a glance

You're building a stunning tower of cream-filled choux puffs here, and the real magic happens when you master the choux dough and nail those light, airy bakes. The trickiest part is piping and filling those little puffs—a hand mixer helps with the dough, and a piping bag is your best friend for both steps. Once everything's assembled, you get to have fun decorating with caramel, chocolate, or whatever catches your eye.

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Make the dough

Bring salted water to a boil in a saucepan. Add the butter and let it melt. Stirring constantly, add all the flour at once. Keep stirring vigorously over low heat for about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool slightly.

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250 milliliter
Water

3 gram
Salt

100 gram
Unsalted Butter

150 gram
Medium-Fine Wheat Flour
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Add the eggs

Then gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time, stirring constantly. It's best to use a hand-held electric mixer with whisk attachments.

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4 piece
Chicken Eggs
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Pipe onto the baking sheet

Transfer the dough into a piping bag and pipe small mounds, about the size of a walnut, onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you'd rather not bother with a piping bag and washing up all the nozzles, you can simply spoon the dough onto the sheet with a teaspoon.

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Bake

Bake for 12–15 minutes in an electric oven preheated to 200°C. Once the puffs have cooled, fill them with vanilla custard cream (for the less fussy among us) – more dedicated bakers can make their own crème pâtissière (egg yolk custard) – but that's a story for another time.
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Make the cream

Cook the listed ingredients into a custard, let it cool, then beat it together with the butter.

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100 gram
Unsalted Butter

30 gram
Granulated Sugar

80 gram
Vanilla Pudding Powder

750 gram
Fresh Whole Milk (3.5% Fat)
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Fill the puffs

There's no getting around using a piping bag for filling the puffs. Fill the bag with the cream, poke a hole in the bottom of each puff with the piping tip, and fill.
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Tip: decorating

Traditionally, this dessert is draped in a veil of spun caramel threads. That was the one thing I didn't quite manage! Instead, I thought of tucking chocolate-dipped strawberries between the puffs – white and dark chocolate, or caramel – plus maybe a few flowers.

Croquembouche

Name: Elegant Croquembouche Tower
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 64 min
Total time: 114 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 30 gram Granulated Sugar; 80 gram Vanilla Pudding Powder; 3 gram Salt; 750 gram Fresh Whole Milk (3.5% Fat); 250 milliliter Water; 200 gram Unsalted Butter; 4 piece Chicken Eggs; 150 gram Medium-Fine Wheat Flour

bohynekuchyne

Prep 5 min Cook 1 h 4 min

8 Ingredients

7 Steps

Very hard Difficulty

Ingredients — what you'll need

You only need 8 ingredients

Adjust servings

30 gram
Granulated Sugar
80 gram
Vanilla Pudding Powder
3 gram
Salt
750 gram
Fresh Whole Milk (3.5% Fat)
250 milliliter
Water
200 gram
Unsalted Butter
4 piece
Chicken Eggs
150 gram
Medium-Fine Wheat Flour

What's in it?

359 kcal

Calories

44 g

Carbohydrates

53 g

Fats

18 g

Proteins

The nutritional information is an estimate and may vary based on the specific ingredients used.

About this recipe

The preparation is simple – as long as you've got the hang of making choux pastry. Traditionally, the tower sits on a base of nougatine or shortcrust pastry. This time I skipped that step, since I was only testing the recipe with a small batch.

Vegetarian

Step-by-step method

At a glance

Make the dough

For this step

Add the eggs

For this step

Pipe onto the baking sheet

Croquembouche

Ingredients — what you'll need

What's in it?

About this recipe